Royal Albert Hospital (original part only)

SD46SE 1685-1/1/10

LANCASTER ASHTON ROAD Royal Albert Hospital (original part only)

30/11/70

GV II* Mental hospital. 1868-1873. Designed by Paley and Austin. Dressed sandstone with ashlar dressings and with red St Bees sandstone in bands at impost level on the ground and first floors and as eaves corbels. Hipped roofs of green Coniston slate. Gothic Revival style.

Symmetrical plan with two storeys above a basement, and attics with gabled dormer windows. Six bay central block flanked by eleven bay wings which have, in their centre, a three bay canted projection and, at the end, a wider and taller three bay pavilion with a separate roof. Most ground-floor windows have paired lancets under a two-centred arched hoodmould, and most first-floor windows have paired lights under flat lintels. Those in the projections and pavilions are more ornate, mostly with triple lancets under an oculus. All dormer windows have cross casements and hipped roofs with finials.

The central block has a single-storey triple-arched porch with columns of red sandstone set between wide projecting bays. These have two paired windows on the ground floor, between which is a buttress which supports a canted oriel on the first floor. Above and behind the porch is a wide three storey tower with four corner turrets and a tall steeply-pitched roof with three tiers of gabled dormers. The centre of the middle storey of the tower has a clock flanked by statues of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, sculpted in Longridge stone by Mr Bridgeman of Lichfield and unveiled in 1888, all under an arcade of trefoiled arches under gablets. The long rear wings to left and right have either bay centres between projecting three bay pavilions with separate roofs.

INTERIOR: in the centre block is an imperial staircase with an ornate wrought-iron balustrade which rises behind a triple arch with elaborate waterleaf capitals; further to the rear is the five-bay De Vitre Hall with two-light transomed windows under an oculus and a roof of six arch-braced trusses which have a king post with an arch on either side above the collar.

HISTORY: established as the 'Royal Albert Idiot Asylum for idiots and imbeciles of the seven northern counties.' It accepted both paying patients and those admitted by the vote of subscribers.

Listing NGR: SD4766060082